Sunny Days Sweeping The Clouds Away
by pronker
Summary: Skipper and Marlene decide to try dating. [First entry in a loosely constructed trilogy, followed by "Trial And Error" and "Adventures in Babysitting."]


Title: Sunny Days Sweeping The Clouds Away

Author: pronker

Timeframe: Someplace during the TV series.

Disclaimer: I make no profit from this fanfiction set in Dreamworks' Penguins of Madagascar franchise. They own the characters, setting and all other appurtenances thereto.

Summary: Skipper and Marlene decide to try dating.

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St. Peter tossed his keys from one flipper to the other. He appraised the penguin before him, one of dozens who would stand in the same place today. This one's life story hadn't been the most unusual, but it came close.

"- and so that's how I got here. I didn't think it would happen this soon. The others need me." Skipper took a deep breath, quite surprised that he was still feeling the urge to breathe. What was going on, anyhow? Why didn't he feel cold or hot but still the same as when he was alive this morning, when New York City opened its eyes to humidity with chances of thundershowers? Last night Gil Force had predicted a sunny and clear August day, no less. He strained to see Manfredi and Johnson in the milling crowd of penguins through the fence, but there were no familiar faces to greet him in this plane of existence, darnit. He wanted to curse more satisfyingly. He thought better of it, given the circumstances. There was no sense in browning off a superior officer.

"Skipper, your time has come. Say goodbye to all that you leave behind and follow me." The holy saint juggled his keys with a mutter. "This one's for the Potoroo Paradise, this is the one for Guppy Gloryland, oh here it is - the Endless Iceberg." He didn't look back to see if he were being followed as the lock opened and he stepped through the towering gates of gold scrollwork. A few penguins looked up from their unknowable pursuits and nodded. He nodded back as he waved the newest arrival onward like an aircraft marshaler using batons. Skipper thought it ironic that a flightless bird signaled another flightless bird in such a manner.

The team commander bowed his head to the inevitable. He peered down through the cloud cover below his feet to a very particular spot on a very particular habitat in Central Park Zoo. There she was. His heart heard her words without effort.

"Come on, Skipper, don't do this - "

"Marlene!" Skipper called. "What on earth are you up to?"

As if she hadn't heard him, she continued this remarkable thing. She squashed his belly to make a fountain of water spurt. She crossed his flippers in his trademark pose and pushed on them - wait, was that his body down there and not up here with all that made him _him_? This was too eerie for words.

"Skipper! _Don't!_ " Now she undid his flippers and recrossed them over his chest and pushed harder. More water geysered upwards. She paused and he heard her sob.

It had to be said. "I've got to go, sister. I lost the battle. Don't cry."

The otter pressed her paws to the sides of her head and then clasped them together as she fell across his body. How strange that he couldn't feel her weight. Whatever she whispered next was out of Skipper's hearing. He chanced a look over at St. Peter and the rest of the penguins. They shimmered until all he could make out clearly was the saint's halo. Where it once glowed steadily, it began to pulse as if confused. For Pete's sake, who would know about these supernatural issues more than a citizen of the realm itself? _Somebody's_ team needed organizing and he was just the penguin to do it.

A voice as profound as St. Patrick's Cathedral bells on Easter morn now sounded out of sorts. "Oh, for the love of - " St. Peter passed back through to the other side of the gates to double check his ledger. To Skipper, the holy penguin appeared at a loss. He squinted twice at his ledger and then at the arrival before him. He shrugged as he pierced his fellow bird to the core with a look of judgment ethereal and true.

Oh. He wasn't meant for the Endless Iceberg. What had he done that was so heinous? He'd lived a manly macho life. He'd paid his dues. He'd led his team through thick and thin. How was that wrong? What would happen to him now?

Skipper gave all his attention to Marlene, since the Endless Iceberg didn't want him. He'd have these last precious sights of her to bide him for eternity whatever his final destination. What was she - it looked like -

"I won't let you or a stupid lightning strike ruin our day. Here comes our first kiss, ready or not, _muy fuerte_." She placed her paws around his beak to shape it the tiniest bit open. She placed her mouth over his and blew hard. He could see that the rubbery little pads on her paws sealed the intimate connection so that air could pass full force into his lungs. She fumbled in the beginning and he counted the respirations silently, too awestruck to say them out loud.

Suddenly she had the rhythm right and she kept on going, good on her. Where there had been no feeling now was pain and as he doubled over, he felt himself falling. A strong flipper braced him and he looked up into St. Peter's face.

The saint winked as mischievously as Private did. "Not yet. And next time, Skipper, no showing off for Marlene. You didn't need the reverse four and a half somersault pike during a thunderstorm to impress her. That was asking for trouble."

"Will ... you ... let ... me go ... _please_?"

"As you wish. Watch out for lightning strikes on the way down." Another wink as the last thing Skipper beheld was St. Peter waving both flippers circularly like Mr. Miyagi's _wax on, wax off_ gestures. "You didn't see _anything."_

The support vanished but then he didn't need it any longer. Christopher Cross' _Sailing_ flitted through his thoughts as his reality shaded from supernatural to natural. He landed hard.

"- _urk hack hack wheeeeze - "_ Damn, but he had a sore throat. He wouldn't be able to thank Marlene properly for some time.

They gasped together in the muggy aftermath of a brief but violent weather event. It ought to be easy to get through the rest of their date after _this._

 _"What! Were! You! Thinking!"_ screeched Marlene eventually.

It seemed too much effort to sit up. Skipper rubbed his throat and shrugged. He mimed like Rico would as he rolled to one side and supported his head with crooked flipper while adopting a nonchalant expression. He sketched a zigzag in the air.

"A lightning bolt hit near you and knocked you out in the middle of your dive, yes, I was there, remember? Not _what,_ I can see I've confused your little fried pea brain, but _why?_ Why, Skipper? Object in air during thunderstorm, bad idea, much? I may not have Kowalski's brain but I've got common sense!" She looked cute as she groomed away water with short, angry motions. She gave one last run through over her head before scowling at him. "This is the worst date _ever."_

Skipper looked sad.

"Aw. Don't be like that. There _is_ one way it could have been worse." She shivered and Skipper pulled her close. Her fur was dry now and he nuzzled his beak into her soft flank as she sat above him. The zoo's masterful planning ensured that moisture seeped away quickly through any habitat's drainage system and as the sun peeked through after some minutes, Gil Force's prediction came true.

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The End.

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End file.
